Motorized unit for operating motion displays



Dec. 1941- I v M. s. DUNKELBERGER 2,266,744

MOTORIZED UNIT FOR OPERATING WOTION DISPLAYS Fil ed Feb. 8, 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Dec. 23, 1941.

M. S. DUNKELBERGER MOTORIZED UNIT FOR OPERA-TING MOTION DISPLAYS Filed Feb. 8, 1937 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 1 I VIIIIIIIIIIIIIliillllllllll l Ill/ ll ATTORNEY Patented Dec. 23, 1941 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE MOTORIZED UNIT FOR OPERATING MOTION DISPLAYS This invention relates to new and useful improvements in motorized units for operating motion displays. I

-It is one of the principal objects of my invention to provide a compact, easily assembled and efficient motorized unit for operating window displays or other mechanisms where various numbers and kinds of motion may be desired.-

It is another objectof my invention to provide a motor-powered unit that may be easily attached to the back of emotion display to provide, with very simple and easy changes, various types of movement such as revolving, rocking, arm, index and cam motions. The index and cam motions are obtained by simple and easy attachments to the motor unit which is also adapted to provide all of the various motions at four different speeds in forward and reverse.

My invention provides, instead of solid shafts, hollow shafts or tubes, preferably two that receive sliding attaching members with locking wing nuts. For example, the hollow drive shaft carries the large gear and eccentric to produce all of the revolving motions. The other hollow shaft, which is the rocker shaft, carries'the quick change rocker arm and free wheel, and produces all the motions except the revolving ones.

It is another object of my invention to provide quick change means on the rocker arm for obtaining various length strokes of the eccentric connecting rod.

A further object of my invention is to provide quickly detachable side plates for disassembling the unit.

Other important and incidental objects will be brought out in the following specification and particularly set forth in the subjoinejd claims.

In the accompanying drawings Figure 1 is a rear end view of my motor 'powered displayoperating unit. Figure 2 is a view of the back side of that unit. Figure 3 is a sectional view taken through the unit on the line 3=-3 of Figure 2, showing the hollow rocker shaft and attachments. Figure 4 is a sectional view taken through the unit on the line 44 of Figure 2, showing the hollow drive shaft and connections. Figure 5 is an enlarged view of the back side of the unit, showing a Geneva gear attached to the rocker shaft and an operating disc mounted on the drive shaft driven at low speed. Figure 6 is an end view of the two-step pulleys, showing their arrangement when the rocker shaft pulley is driven at high speed by the drive shaft pulley. And Figure 7 is a perspective view of the bracket forattaching the motor unit to a motion displ y.

Referring to the accompanying drawings for a detailed description of the form of embodiment of my invention illustrated in the accompanying drawings, the numeral I designates a U-shaped frame to the bottom of which there is secured by screws 2,.2 a U-shaped bracket plate 3. Fitted in holes in the ends of the latter are bearings 4, 4 for a worm shaft 5 to which a worm 6 is secured.

Removably attached to the front end of the worm shaft 5 is a two-step pulley 6 This pulley may be easily reversed on the shaft to obtain different speeds for that shaft from a two-step pulley 1 on a drive shaft 8, through a flexible belt 9.

The pulley 6 may be firmly held in either one of its opposite positions on the worm shaft 5 by a Wing nut I0 applied to its threaded outer end. The reversibility of thispulley permits it to be driven at four different speeds by the motor pulley 1.

As in the present instance, the drive shaft 8 may be the armature shaft .of an electric motor II that is suspended from the bottom of the studs l3 and nuts I4 to the motor II which may I hollow rocker shaft I8.

therefore be easily changed from an A. C. to a D. C. type.

Formed in the top edges of the sides of the frame I are oppositely disposed front bearing slots and oppositely disposed rear bearing slots.

Removably supported in the front bearing slots are grooved bearings l5, l5 for a hollow drive shaft l6. Grooved bearings I1, I! are removably fitted in the rear bearing slots to support a r v Retainingmembers l8, 19 are removably secured by screws 29 to the top portions of the side plates of the frame, over the grooved bearings l5 and IT, to firmly hold them in the bottoms of their respective bearing slots in the sides of the frame. By removing the screws 20 and the retaining members 19, the hollow shafts I6 and I8 and their attachments may be bodily removed from the frame and easily reinserted therein.

Meshing with the Worm B is a worm gear 2| fast on the hollow drive shaft l6 below a bowed cover plate 22 removably secured to the sides of the frame I. Attached to the .end of the hub 23 of the gear 2| by a rivet 24 are two disc flanges 25, 25 secured by rivets 25, 25 to an eccentric 21. Surrounding the latter is a follower 28 that has a rearwardly projecting rod portion 29 which is pivcta-lly connected by a pin 35 to a slidable member 3!. This member has formed in its lower end an elongated slot 32 which is longitudinally slidable over a sleeve 33 that is freely mounted on the rocker shaft I3, and along a rocker arm 34 which is secured to said sleeve against a shoulder 35 thereon.

In the upper portion of the slidable member 35 there is an elongated slot 36 through which a spring-pressed guide pin 3'! carried by the rocker arm projects. The member 3| is longitudinally movable along the rocker arm 34 to adjust the throw of the eccentric connecting rod 29, and is held in an adjusted position by a quick change knob 38 carried by the slidable member and having a pin end which is insertible in one of a series of holes 39 in the upper portion of the rocker arm. In this instance three holes 39 are provided in the rocker arm, the top hole for short motions thereof, the center hole for medium rocker motions and the lower hole for long rocker motions.

For the-purpose of easily and quickly attaching the operating unit just described to a display which is to be actuated by it, I provide a sleeve 40 which projects transversely through the central portion of the sides of the frame I The sleeve 45 is adapted to receive from either direction and support, a shaft M to one end of which a winged U-shaped bracket 42 is secured and whose other end is threaded to receive a wing nut 53. (See Figure '7.) The central U- shaped portion of the bracket has side wings M, 44 formed with holes that receive wing nut attaching elements 45 for securing the bracket to a motion display. Below the rod 4| an alining stud 45 projects outwardly from the central part of the bracket for entrance in a hole 41 in the side of the frame to which the bracket is attached. (See Figures 2 and '7.)

The bracket and sleeve construction just described permits the display to be attached to opposite sides of the motor unit. To secure it to one side of the latter, the bracket shaft 4| is passed through the sleeve 48 on that side and the wing nut 43 tightened; and to attach it to the other side of the motor unit, for a reverse motion of the display, the shaft AI is inserted in the opposite end of the sleeve. Thus, the motion display used with my motor unit may be with the hollow shaft l8, which is now free to rotate independently of the rocker arm 34. Re-

volving motions may also be imparted to a motion display by locking the attaching means directly to the hollow drive shaft I5.

The speed at which the drive shaft is is driven will be dependent upon the position of the two step pulley on the worm shaft 5 and the pulley parts which the belt 9 encircles.

In Figure 5 the pulley and belt arrangement is such that the shaft 5 will be driven at a low speed; in Figure 6 it is driven at a high speed, whereas in Figure 2 the pulley 6* has a reverse position on the shaft 5 to drive the shaft 5 at intermediate speed.

It will now b ssen that the long hollow shafts l6 and l 8 make possible the attachment of parts by sliding the rods or shafts of the attaching means through the shafts and locking them thereon by wing nuts. No tools are therefore necessary to lock any parts of a motion display to these hollow shafts of the operating unit.

Having described my invention, I claim:

1. In a device of the type described for imparting motion to a movable member, a support, a hollow shaft journaled in said support, a rocker arm loosely mounted on said shaft, means for attaching said rocker arm to the shaft, means for imparting arocking movement to said arm comprising driving means, eccentric means associated therewith, and an operating connection between said driving means and said arm, and and element extending into the hollow shaft for attaching the movable member thereto for a rocking movement thereby, said hollow shaft and said element being provided with cooperating means for detachably securing the same together.

2. In a device of the type described, a frame,

a pair of shafts journaled in said frame, means driven by the latter in either a clockwise or anticlockwise direction, depending upon the side of that unit to which the display is attached by the reversible bracket.

For the purpose of imparting a rocking movemerit to any part of the display, the shaft !8 is oscillated by the rocker arm 34 through the following means. Attached to a collar 48 fixedly secured to the hollow shaft l8 between the rocker arm sleeve 33 and the opposite side of the frame l, is a disc 59 which carries a set screw 50 that is adapted to enter a tapped hole 5! in the rocker arm t.

When the disc 49 is thus connected to the rocker arm, the latter will oscillate the hollow shaft E8 to rock, in turn, a display part (not shown) connected to a bracket 53 whose rod 52 is inserted in the shaft and locked thereto by lugs 53, 53 which engage in notches in one end of the shaft, and by a wing nut 5 applied to the opposite end of the rod.

If it is desired to impart an intermittent rotary carried by said frame for rotating one of said shafts, an eccentric secured to the rotated shaft, a rocker arm loosely secured to the second shaft, a rod connecting the eccentric to said arm to rock the latter, a disc fixedly secured to the second shaft, and means for removably connecting said disc to the rocker arm to oscillate the second shaft.

3. In a device of the type described, a support, a pair of alined shafts journaled in said support, means for rotating one of said shafts, a disc fixedly secured to the second shaft, an eccentric secured to the first shaft, a follower associated with the eccentric, and means for removably connecting said disc and said follower to oscillate the second shaft.

4. As a new article of manufacture, an operating unit for motion displays, comprising a support, a plurality of parallel hollow shafts for operating movable parts of a motion display,

to one of said shafts, and an auxiliary shaft insertable in either hollow shaft from either end thereof, said auxiliary shaft having means 00- operable with the aforesaid locking means at one end of one of said hollow shafts for fixedly securing said auxiliary shaft to either of said hollow shafts, whereby said auxiliary shaft is interchangeably associable with either hollow shaft for rotation relative to, or for fixed connection with, the hollow shaft in which it is inserted.

5. An operating unit for motion displays, comprising a support, a plurality of parallel hollow shafts for operating movable parts of a motion display, said shafts being journaled in said support, and each shaft having an operating portion accessible at opposite sides of said support for connection thereat with a movable part of a motion display, means for imparting movement to one of said shafts, and an auxiliary shaft insertable in either hollow shaft from either end thereof, said hollow shafts and said auxiliary shaft being provided with cooperating means for detachably securing the same together, whereby said auxiliary shaft is interchangeably associable with either hollow shaft for rotation relative to the hollow shaft in which it is inserted, or alternatively, for fixed connection of the auxiliary shaft with the hollow shaft in which it is inserted.

MILTON S. DUNKELBERGER. 

